Planning for 2019

[Stephanie]

Hi Bookworms!

Can you believe that 2018 is nearly over? I had a great time working through all the fun challenges and specials. It's time to start thinking about what we'll be reading in 2019!

For all who would like to participate next year, please start sending your suggestions for themes, genres, etc. for both the year-long challenges and monthly specials in this thread. I will collect your responses and create another survey as we did for 2018 and we'll all vote on the ones we'd like to see for 2019. Please think about ways to mix it up a little bit; it's nice to read books that we're comfortable with but let's see if we can find something to push our boundaries a little. I may invoke "Moderator's Choice" for a few of the challenges if I think we need to vary our topics a little for the year-long challenges.

Please let me know if have any suggestions about other fun ideas we can consider adding to the group. We're not a particular chatty group but would adding a monthly fun topic, question, etc. stimulate more conversation? Is anyone interested in helping in the group with some extra topics or fun short challenges? Connie has graciously agreed to again create and moderate the monthly specials (Yea, Connie!) but if some of you others would like to help out, let me know!

I look forward to seeing all your suggestions. I think we'll have some fun choices for next year!

Stephanie

[Rebecca]

Thank you so much for doing this, Stephanie. I have to admit I'm short on ideas for new challenges. Maybe something like non-fiction adventure? Of course, I already read those :)

As for fun... I do kind of like the idea of a goofy monthly topic or question to help us chat a bit and get to know each other. Or maybe a question about the best book we read each month.

[Michelle]

i may have jotted down a couple ideas over the past year...

Books with twins
Books with gods
Books with pirates
Cowboys
Aliens
Books with clothes in the title
Books with revenge
Spy stories
Books of rescue stories
Books with mythical creatures (mermaids, dragons)
Books set in the 1800s
Books in space
Books with a question in the title
Robots
Graphic novels
Rereads
Movie/tv adaptations
Books with ‘s in the title (apostrophe-S)
Books that never fit a category!!!

i also included ones we have done before that i liked

[Connie]

My initial thoughts for categories:
Graphic novels
500 + pages
Humour
Translations
Biography/memoir
General nonfiction
"Free" space (5 books you really like that don't fit any other category)
Books adapted for tv or movie
5 Books by the same author
Part of a series (at least 4 book series)

[Wanda]

My suggestions:
Post apocalypse
Books from the Great American Read
Books by a Nobel Prize winning author
Books published the decade you were born
Specific mysteries such as written before 1940 or a historical setting
Books by a specific author. One who is prolific like Stephen King or Agatha Christie or James Patterson.
We could list our top ten books we read this year and the combined list could be a category but you can't choose from your own list.

[Rhonda]

Author of color
New to you author (5 different ones)
Religious/spiritual books
Books with fewer than 1000 reviews on GR
Books that deal with current social issues
Recommended by people in this group (might also be a discussion topic)

Book bloggers and youtubers do lots of readathons. Maybe we could participate in some? They’re usually about a week long, but some are longer.

[Fatima]

Books released during 2019 (Could be a monthly challenge halfway through the year)
Occult books

books covering different eras (like if you've read a book covering the world war 2 era, you cannot count a second book covering the same time frame. and how you want to define era can vary from person to person as long and even individually people can use different eras as long as two time frames don't overlap)

i suppose we could do challenges based to types of books. like i think for the most part we have covered fiction/non fiction (at least in my case), but why don't we create a challenge for like reading poetry works, or plays, or flash fiction, etc?

[Ann-Marie]

I have really enjoyed being a part of this group and am looking forward to next years challenges. Here's my suggestions:

- books about books and/or reading
- snow, winter or ice stories
- dog stories
- time travel stories
- bird stories
- stories set on an island

[Rebecca]

Oooh--I like the idea of stories set on an island! I've read a number of very good ones this year.

[Connie]

Ann-Marie wrote: "I have really enjoyed being a part of this group and am looking forward to next years challenges. Here's my suggestions:

- books about books and/or reading
- snow, winter or ice stories
- dog stor..."
I was thinking about the books about books as well

[Linda]

Connie wrote: "My initial thoughts for categories:
Graphic novels
500 + pages
Humour
Translations
Biography/memoir
General nonfiction
"Free" space (5 books you really like that don't fit any other
category)
Books..."

I really like the 5 books by the same author!

[Emilie]

2018 topics that I enjoyed:
- books made into TV or movies
- books set in different countries
- books that are part of a series

2019 new ideas
- definitely a "books that dont fit a category" category
- books that have been banned in a country
- a book chosen based on the cover

I like the suggestion someone made about books with less than 1000 reviews. might find a diamond in the rough there! :)

[Kate]

Most of the nonfiction I read this year didn't fit into a category. An Investigative Journalism category could be fun. How about a Science Factual category?

I also liked the Translations category this year and the Books with Magic. Both categories were broader than they first appeared.

Some suggestions above I'd like to second (or third):
Books people in the challenge recommend
Books from the Great American Read
Books about books and reading
Humor
Books published the decade you were born

Other suggestions:
Books that take place in the Southern Hemisphere
Books with main characters over age 60

[Cathy]

There were several topics that I really enjoyed this year.

Prize Winners
TBA list over a year

some topics mentioned that I really like

Post Apocalypse
listing of members Top 10 reads in 2018
Books that don't fit a category

Others I would like to recommend

Magical Realism
Southern Charms (takes place in the south)
Books with strong Father/Daughter relationships
Books Nominated for the 2018 Goodread Choice Awards
Great White North (books by Canadian Authors)

Looking forward to the New Year

[Stephanie]

These suggestions are terrific! I'm putting the survey together now and hope to send it out this week. If you have any other suggested topics/categories, send them in by tomorrow. Then look for a message from me with the link to the survey sometime in the coming week.

[Connie]

Stephanie wrote: "These suggestions are terrific! I'm putting the survey together now and hope to send it out this week. If you have any other suggested topics/categories, send them in by tomorrow. Then look for a m..."
Thanks for doing all this work for the group.

[Wanda]

Stephanie wrote: "These suggestions are terrific! I'm putting the survey together now and hope to send it out this week. If you have any other suggested topics/categories, send them in by tomorrow. Then look for a m..."

Thanks for doing this Stephanie!
Is Magic Realism the same as Urban Fantasy? If not then I would suggest Urban Fantasy or maybe a Magical Realism/Urban Fantasy category. It would be good to do some sub-genres. But I would probably need them explained!

[Connie]

If you are still taking suggestions I just wanted to include my favourites from this year:
Historical fiction
Bios and memoirs
Anthologies
Translations
Mystery/thriller/suspense

[Stephanie]

All right! I think we've covered about all we're going to... Survey to be coming soon.

[Stephanie]

Survey was posted earlier this week, everyone should have received a message from me with the link. Do let me know if you did NOT receive and I will send to you.

[Michael]

Yes, survey was received and filled out. It will be interesting to see what topics come out as the top picks. Thank you for the work you have put in Stephanie.

[Stephanie]

Thank you to all who have voted! The survey will be closed tomorrow evening sometime and new categories will be posted by January 1. If you haven't voted yet, this will be your last chance!

[Kathryn in FL]

Stephanie, I didn't receive a survey. : ( Could you send again, please? Thank you so much.

[Stephanie]

Here's the link for any last minute voters:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F9H5MNK

I'll be closing the survey later this evening.